Ring-back tones provide a personalization service, which replaces the standard ring-back tone for calling parties (including friends and family) to enjoy. With this service a subscriber may choose, for example, a song for callers to hear before the subscriber picks up the call. The song plays in the call setup phase, also known as the “ringing” phase.
Typically, ring-back tones may be purchased through the Internet, over the phone and through text messages. Some services may offer the ability to specify a unique ring-back tone to be played conditionally (such as during a specific time period, on a specific day of the week, during a date range, for callers from a specific NPA etc.). A default ring-back tone may be played during all other times. Ring-back tones may be offered, for example, for different music genres, such as, Rap/Hip-Hop, Pop, Rock, R&B, Alternative, Metal, Classic Rock, Soundtracks & Themes, Country, Voice Tones, Dance, Electronic, Folk, 60's, 70's, 80's, Oldies, Blues, Jazz, Inspirational, World, Latin, Holiday, Sports, TV/Movies, VH1, Comedy Central, etc. Also, a unique ring-back tone may be designated for specific callers or groups of callers.
Specialized ring-back tones were introduced for wireless and wire-line telecommunications service providers a couple years back. It is typical to find that these service providers allow subscribers to choose specialized ring-back tones from a repository containing tens of thousands of ring-back tones. As the foregoing indicates, this service is geared towards consumer or mass market.
A geofence is a geographic boundary or boundaries that, for example, a customer's mobile assets are permitted to roam. A geofence boundary is a closed polygon or radius. If the asset is within the boundary you are in geofence compliance, outside the boundary you are in geofence violation.
In contrast to a ring-back service, geofencing is geared towards a different segment of users. In general, it requires the use of a desktop, or a handheld smart device, to track a specific person or object in motion, for example. It is considered a very technical application, generally not suitable for the common population.